1
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Lauzon C, Chiasso D, Rabin JS, Ciaramelli E, Rosenbaum RS. Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Does Not Play a Selective Role in Pattern Separation. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:435-446. [PMID: 38060255 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
Humans have the capacity to form new memories of events that are, at times, highly similar to events experienced in the past, as well as the capacity to integrate and associate new information within existing knowledge structures. The former process relies on mnemonic discrimination and is believed to depend on hippocampal pattern separation, whereas the latter is believed to depend on generalization signals and conceptual categorization supported by the neocortex. Here, we examine whether and how the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) supports discrimination and generalization on a widely used task that was primarily designed to tax hippocampal processes. Ten individuals with lesions to the vMPFC and 46 neurotypical control participants were administered an adapted version of the mnemonic similarity task [Stark, S. M., Yassa, M. A., Lacy, J. W., & Stark, C. E. L. A task to assess behavioral pattern separation (BPS) in humans: Data from healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2442-2449, 2013], which assesses the ability to distinguish previously learned images of everyday objects (targets) from unstudied, highly similar images (lures) and dissimilar images (foils). Relative to controls, vMPFC-lesioned individuals showed intact discrimination of lures from targets but a propensity to mistake studied targets and similar lures for dissimilar foils. This pattern was accompanied by inflated confidence despite low accuracy when responding to similar lures. These findings demonstrate a more general role of the vMPFC in memory retrieval, rather than a specific role in supporting pattern separation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Lauzon
- Department of Psychology and Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
| | - Daniel Chiasso
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Jennifer S Rabin
- University of Toronto, Canada
- Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
- Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Italy
- Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - R Shayna Rosenbaum
- Department of Psychology and Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
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2
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Stendardi D, Basu A, Treves A, Ciaramelli E. Déjà vu: A botched memory operation, illegitimate to start with. Behav Brain Sci 2023; 46:e378. [PMID: 37961795 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x2300016x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Rather than a natural product, a computational analysis leads us to characterize déjà vu as a failure of memory retrieval, linked to the activation in neocortex of familiar items from a compositional memory in the absence of hippocampal input, and to a misappropriation by the self of what is of others.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debora Stendardi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | | | | | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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3
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Cantarella G, Vianello G, Vezzadini G, Frassinetti F, Ciaramelli E, Candini M. Time bisection and reproduction: Evidence for a slowdown of the internal clock in right brain damaged patients. Cortex 2023; 167:303-317. [PMID: 37595392 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.05.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/20/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies show that the right hemisphere is involved in time processing, and that damage to the right hemisphere is associated with a tendency to perceive time intervals as shorter than they are, and to reproduce time intervals as longer than they are. Whether time processing deficits following right hemisphere damage are related and what is their neurocognitive basis is unclear. In this study, right brain damaged (RBD) patients, left brain damaged (LBD) patients, and healthy controls underwent a time bisection task and a time reproduction task involving time intervals varying between each other by milliseconds (short durations) or seconds (long durations). The results show that in the time bisection task RBD patients underestimated time intervals compared to LBD patients and healthy controls, while they reproduced time intervals as longer than they are. Time underestimation and over-reproduction in RBD patients applied to short but not long time intervals, and were correlated. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) showed that time underestimation was associated with lesions to a right cortico-subcortical network involving the insula and inferior frontal gyrus. A small portion of this network was also associated with time over-reproduction. Our findings are consistent with a slowdown of an 'internal clock' timing mechanism following right brain damage, which likely underlies both the underestimation and the over-reproduction of time intervals, and their (overlapping) neural bases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Cantarella
- Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Greta Vianello
- Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Castel Goffredo, Italy
| | | | - Francesca Frassinetti
- Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Castel Goffredo, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy.
| | - Michela Candini
- Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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4
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Stendardi D, Giordani LG, Gambino S, Kaplan R, Ciaramelli E. Who am I really? The ephemerality of the self-schema following vmPFC damage. Neuropsychologia 2023; 188:108651. [PMID: 37481034 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Revised: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
We studied the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in supporting the self-schema, by asking vmPFC patients, along with healthy and brain-damaged controls, to judge the degree to which they (or another person) were likely to engage in a series of activities, and how confident they were in their responses. Critically, participants provided their judgments on two separate occasions, a week apart. Our underlying assumption was that a strong self-schema would lead to confident and stable self-related judgments. We observed that control groups exhibited higher across-session consistency for self-related compared to other-related judgments, while this self-advantage was absent in vmPFC patients. In addition, regression analyses showed that in control groups the level of confidence associated with a specific (self- or other-related) judgment predicted the stability of that judgment across sessions. In contrast, vmPFC patients' confidence and rating consistency were aligned only for other-related judgments. By contrast, self-related judgments changed across sessions regardless of the confidence level with which they were initially endorsed. These findings indicate that the vmPFC is crucial to maintaining the self-schema and supporting the reliable retrieval of self-related information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debora Stendardi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Università di Bologna, Bologna, 40126, Italy; Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, University of Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, 47521, Italy.
| | - Luca Giacometti Giordani
- Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, University of Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, 47521, Italy
| | - Silvia Gambino
- Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, University of Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, 47521, Italy
| | - Raphael Kaplan
- Department of Basic Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de La Plana, 12071, Spain
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia 'Renzo Canestrari', Università di Bologna, Bologna, 40126, Italy; Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, University of Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, 47521, Italy.
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5
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Giacometti Giordani L, Crisafulli A, Cantarella G, Avenanti A, Ciaramelli E. The role of posterior parietal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex in distraction and mind-wandering. Neuropsychologia 2023; 188:108639. [PMID: 37422183 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Revised: 07/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/10/2023]
Abstract
Distraction reflects a drift of attention away from the task at hand towards task-irrelevant external or internal information (mind-wandering). The right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are known to mediate attention to external information and mind-wandering, respectively, but it is not clear whether they support each process selectively or rather they play similar roles in supporting both. In this study, participants performed a visual search task including salient color singleton distractors before and after receiving cathodal (inhibitory) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the right PPC, the mPFC, or sham tDCS. Thought probes assessed the intensity and contents of mind-wandering during visual search. The results show that tDCS to the right PPC but not mPFC reduced the attentional capture by the singleton distractor during visual search. tDCS to both mPFC and PPC reduced mind-wandering, but only tDCS to the mPFC specifically reduced future-oriented mind-wandering. These results suggest that the right PPC and mPFC play a different role in directing attention towards task-irrelevant information. The PPC is involved in both external and internal distraction, possibly by mediating the disengagement of attention from the current task and its reorienting to salient information, be this a percept or a mental content (mind-wandering). By contrast, the mPFC uniquely supports mind-wandering, possibly by mediating the endogenous generation of future-oriented thoughts capable to draw attention inward, away from ongoing activities.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrea Crisafulli
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena, Italy
| | - Giovanni Cantarella
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena, Italy; Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Alessio Avenanti
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena, Italy; Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena, Italy; Department of Psychology 'Renzo Canestrari', University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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6
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Stendardi D, De Luca F, Gambino S, Ciaramelli E. Retrograde amnesia abolishes the self-reference effect in anterograde memory. Exp Brain Res 2023:10.1007/s00221-023-06661-2. [PMID: 37450003 PMCID: PMC10386963 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06661-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Is retrograde amnesia associated with an ability to know who we are and imagine what we will be like in the future? To answer this question, we had S.G., a patient with focal retrograde amnesia following hypoxia, two brain-damaged (control) patients with no retrograde memory deficits, and healthy controls judge whether each of a series of trait adjectives was descriptive of their present self, future self, another person, and that person in the future, and later recognize studied traits among distractors. Healthy controls and control patients were more accurate in recognizing self-related compared to other-related traits, a phenomenon known as the self-reference effect (SRE). This held for both present and future self-views. By contrast, no evidence of (present or future) SRE was observed in SG, who concomitantly showed reduced certainty about his personality traits. These findings indicate that retrograde amnesia can weaken the self-schema and preclude its instantiation during self-related processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debora Stendardi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy.
| | - Flavia De Luca
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QH, UK
| | - Silvia Gambino
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
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7
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Ryom KI, Stendardi D, Ciaramelli E, Treves A. Computational constraints on the associative recall of spatial scenes. Hippocampus 2023; 33:635-645. [PMID: 36762712 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2022] [Revised: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
We consider a model of associative storage and retrieval of compositional memories in an extended cortical network. Our model network is comprised of Potts units, which represent patches of cortex, interacting through long-range connections. The critical assumption is that a memory, for example of a spatial view, is composed of a limited number of items, each of which has a pre-established representation: storing a new memory only involves acquiring the connections, if novel, among the participating items. The model is shown to have a much lower storage capacity than when it stores simple unitary representations. It is also shown that an input from the hippocampus facilitates associative retrieval. When it is absent, it is advantageous to cue rare rather than frequent items. The implications of these results for emerging trends in empirical research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Debora Stendardi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia Renzo Canestrari, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia Renzo Canestrari, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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8
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Rosenbaum RS, Halilova JG, Kwan D, Beneventi S, Craver CF, Gilboa A, Ciaramelli E. Temporal Construal Effects Are Independent of Episodic Future Thought. Psychol Sci 2023; 34:75-86. [PMID: 36287189 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221120001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Human thought is prone to biases. Some biases serve as beneficial heuristics to free up limited cognitive resources or improve well-being, but their neurocognitive basis is unclear. One such bias is a tendency to construe events in the distant future in abstract, general terms and events in the near future in concrete, detailed terms. Temporal construal may rely on our capacity to orient toward and/or imagine context-rich future events. We tested 21 individuals with impaired episodic future thinking resulting from lesions to the hippocampus or ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and 57 control participants (aged 45-76 years) from Canada and Italy on measures sensitive to temporal construal. We found that temporal construal persisted in most patients, even those with impaired episodic future thinking, but was abolished in some vmPFC cases, possibly in relation to difficulties forming and maintaining future intentions. The results confirm the fractionation of future thinking and that parts of vmPFC might critically support our ability to flexibly conceive and orient ourselves toward future events.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Shayna Rosenbaum
- Department of Psychology, York University.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada
| | - J G Halilova
- Department of Psychology, York University.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada
| | - D Kwan
- Department of Psychology, York University.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada
| | - S Beneventi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna
| | - C F Craver
- Department of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - A Gilboa
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
| | - E Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna.,Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna
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9
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Stendardi D, Biscotto F, Bertossi E, Ciaramelli E. Present and future self in memory: the role of vmPFC in the self-reference effect. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1205-1213. [PMID: 34086968 PMCID: PMC8716844 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-related information is remembered better than other-related information (self-reference effect; SRE), a phenomenon that has been convincingly linked to the medial prefrontal cortex. It is not clear whether information related to our future self would also have a privileged status in memory, as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regions respond less to the future than to the present self, as if it were an 'other'. Here we ask whether the integrity of the ventral mPFC (vmPFC) is necessary for the emergence of the present and future SRE, if any. vmPFC patients and brain-damaged and healthy controls judged whether each of a series of trait adjectives was descriptive of their present self, future self, another person and that person in the future and later recognized studied traits among distractors. Information relevant to the present (vs future) was generally recognized better, across groups. However, whereas healthy and brain-damaged controls exhibited strong present and future SREs, these were absent in vmPFC patients, who concomitantly showed reduced certainty about their own present and anticipated traits compared to the control groups. These findings indicate that vmPFC is necessary to impart a special mnemonic status to self-related information, including our envisioned future self, possibly by instantiating the self-schema.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debora Stendardi
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
| | - Francesca Biscotto
- Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena 47521, Italy
| | - Elena Bertossi
- Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena 47521, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
- Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena 47521, Italy
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10
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Viol A, Treves A, Ciaramelli E. Navigating through the ebbs and flows of language. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2021; 70:130-136. [PMID: 34801786 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Is progress in understanding the neural basis for spatial navigation relevant to the human language faculty? Not so much at the shortest scale, where movement is continuous, a recent study in the space of vowels suggests. At a much larger scale, however, that of the verbalization of run-away thoughts, a rich phenomenology appears to involve critical contributions by some of the brain structures also involved in spatial cognition. Their interactions may have to be approached with models operating at an integrated cortical level and allowing for the compositionality of multiple local attractor states. A useful window on the latching dynamics enabled by cortico-cortical interactions may be offered by altered states of consciousness. As an example, psychedelic states have been reported to alter the graph properties of functional connectivity in the cortex so as to facilitate wide-ranging trips.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aline Viol
- SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience, Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
| | - Alessandro Treves
- SISSA - Cognitive Neuroscience, Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy.
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dip. di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Viale Berti-Pichat 5, 40126, Bologna, Italy
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11
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Ciaramelli E, De Luca F, Kwan D, Mok J, Bianconi F, Knyagnytska V, Craver C, Green L, Myerson J, Rosenbaum RS. The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in reward valuation and future thinking during intertemporal choice. eLife 2021; 10:67387. [PMID: 34342577 PMCID: PMC8331177 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Intertemporal choices require trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage causes steep discounting of future rewards (delay discounting [DD]) and impoverished episodic future thinking (EFT). The role of vmPFC in reward valuation, EFT, and their interaction during intertemporal choice is still unclear. Here, 12 patients with lesions to vmPFC and 41 healthy controls chose between smaller-immediate and larger-delayed hypothetical monetary rewards while we manipulated reward magnitude and the availability of EFT cues. In the EFT condition, participants imagined personal events to occur at the delays associated with the larger-delayed rewards. We found that DD was steeper in vmPFC patients compared to controls, and not modulated by reward magnitude. However, EFT cues downregulated DD in vmPFC patients as well as controls. These findings indicate that vmPFC integrity is critical for the valuation of (future) rewards, but not to instill EFT in intertemporal choice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Flavia De Luca
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Donna Kwan
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jenkin Mok
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Francesca Bianconi
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Violetta Knyagnytska
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Cesena, Italy.,Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Carl Craver
- Department of Philosophy, Washington University, St. Louis, United States
| | - Leonard Green
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, United States
| | - Joel Myerson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, United States
| | - R Shayna Rosenbaum
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada
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12
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Mok JNY, Green L, Myerson J, Kwan D, Kurczek J, Ciaramelli E, Craver CF, Rosenbaum SR. Does Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Damage Really Increase Impulsiveness? Delay and Probability Discounting in Patients with Focal Lesions. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:1-19. [PMID: 34232999 PMCID: PMC8924794 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
If the tendency to discount rewards reflects individuals' general level of impulsiveness, then the discounting of delayed and probabilistic rewards should be negatively correlated: The less a person is able to wait for delayed rewards, the more they should take chances on receiving probabilistic rewards. It has been suggested that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) increases individuals' impulsiveness, but both intertemporal choice and risky choice have only recently been assayed in the same patients with vMPFC damage. Here, we assess both delay and probability discounting in individuals with vMPFC damage (n = 8) or with medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage (n = 10), and in age- and education-matched controls (n = 30). On average, MTL-lesioned individuals discounted delayed rewards at normal rates but discounted probabilistic rewards more shallowly than controls. In contrast, vMPFC-lesioned individuals discounted delayed rewards more steeply but probabilistic rewards more shallowly than controls. These results suggest that vMPFC lesions affect the weighting of reward amount relative to delay and certainty in opposite ways. Moreover, whereas MTL-lesioned individuals and controls showed typical, nonsignificant correlations between the discounting of delayed and probabilistic rewards, vMPFC-lesioned individuals showed a significant negative correlation, as would be expected if vMPFC damage increases impulsiveness more in some patients than in others. Although these results are consistent with the hypothesis that vMPFC plays a role in impulsiveness, it is unclear how they could be explained by a single mechanism governing valuation of both delayed and probabilistic rewards.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Donna Kwan
- York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | | | | | - Shayna R Rosenbaum
- York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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13
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Ciaramelli E, Anelli F, Frassinetti F. An asymmetry in past and future mental time travel following vmPFC damage. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:315-325. [PMID: 33382070 PMCID: PMC7943363 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in mental time travel toward the past and the future is debated. Here, patients with focal lesions to the vmPFC and brain-damaged and healthy controls mentally projected themselves to a past, present or future moment of subjective time (self-projection) and classified a series of events as past or future relative to the adopted temporal self-location (self-reference). We found that vmPFC patients were selectively impaired in projecting themselves to the future and in recognizing relative-future events. These findings indicate that vmPFC damage hinders the mental processing of and movement toward future events, pointing to a prominent, multifaceted role of vmPFC in future-oriented mental time travel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
- Center for Studies and Research of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Cesena 47521, Italy
| | - Filomena Anelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
- Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy
| | - Francesca Frassinetti
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
- Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Operative Unit for Recovery and Functional Rehabilitation, Institute of Castel Goffredo, Mantova 46042, Italy
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14
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Philippi CL, Bruss J, Boes AD, Albazron FM, Streese CD, Ciaramelli E, Rudrauf D, Tranel D. Lesion network mapping demonstrates that mind-wandering is associated with the default mode network. J Neurosci Res 2021; 99:361-373. [PMID: 32594566 PMCID: PMC7704688 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Functional neuroimaging research has consistently associated brain structures within the default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal network (FPN) with mind-wandering. Targeted lesion research has documented impairments in mind-wandering after damage to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampal regions associated with the DMN. However, no lesion studies to date have applied lesion network mapping to identify common networks associated with deficits in mind-wandering. In lesion network mapping, resting-state functional connectivity data from healthy participants are used to infer which brain regions are functionally connected to each lesion location from a sample with brain injury. In the current study, we conducted a lesion network mapping analysis to test the hypothesis that lesions affecting the DMN and FPN would be associated with diminished mind-wandering. We assessed mind-wandering frequency on the Imaginal Processes Inventory (IPI) in participants with brain injury (n = 29) and healthy comparison participants without brain injury (n = 19). Lesion network mapping analyses showed the strongest association of reduced mind-wandering with the left inferior parietal lobule within the DMN. In addition, traditional lesion symptom mapping results revealed that reduced mind-wandering was associated with lesions of the dorsal, ventral, and anterior sectors of mPFC, parietal lobule, and inferior frontal gyrus in the DMN (p < 0.05 uncorrected). These findings provide novel lesion support for the role of the DMN in mind-wandering and contribute to a burgeoning literature on the neural correlates of spontaneous cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carissa L. Philippi
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Joel Bruss
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Aaron D. Boes
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Fatimah M. Albazron
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | | | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology and Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - David Rudrauf
- Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Tranel
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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15
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Ciaramelli E, Burianová H, Vallesi A, Cabeza R, Moscovitch M. Functional Interplay Between Posterior Parietal Cortex and Hippocampus During Detection of Memory Targets and Non-targets. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:563768. [PMID: 33224020 PMCID: PMC7670044 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.563768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 10/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Posterior parietal cortex is frequently activated during episodic memory retrieval but its role during retrieval and its interactions with the hippocampus are not yet clear. In this fMRI study, we investigated the neural bases of recognition memory when study repetitions and retrieval goals were manipulated. During encoding participants studied words either once or three times, and during retrieval they were rewarded more to detect either studied words or new words. We found that (1) dorsal parietal cortex (DPC) was more engaged during detection of items studied once compared to three times, whereas regions in the ventral parietal cortex (VPC) responded more to items studied multiple times; (2) DPC, within a network of brain regions functionally connected to the anterior hippocampus, responded more to items consistent with retrieval goals (associated with high reward); (3) VPC, within a network of brain regions functionally connected to the posterior hippocampus, responded more to items not aligned with retrieval goals (i.e., unexpected). These findings support the hypothesis that DPC and VPC regions contribute differentially to top-down vs. bottom-up attention to memory. Moreover, they reveal a dissociation in the functional profile of the anterior and posterior hippocampi.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cesena, Italy
| | - Hana Burianová
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom.,Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Antonino Vallesi
- Padova Neuroscience Center and Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.,Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo IRCCS, Venezia, Italy
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Morris Moscovitch
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada
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16
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Ciaramelli E, Moscovitch M. The space for memory in posterior parietal cortex: Re-analyses of bottom-up attention data. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107551. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Revised: 06/09/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
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17
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Ciaramelli E, Sellitto M, Tosarelli G, di Pellegrino G. Imagining Events Alternative to the Present Can Attenuate Delay Discounting. Front Behav Neurosci 2019; 13:269. [PMID: 31920579 PMCID: PMC6923661 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that delay discounting (DD), the tendency to prefer smaller-immediate to larger-delayed rewards, decreases following vivid imagination of future events. Here, we test the hypothesis that imagining complex events alternative to direct (perceptual) experience, whether located in the future, the past, or even the present, would reduce DD. Participants (N = 250) imagined future events (Future condition), remembered past events (Past condition), imagined present events (Present-imagine condition), or reported on the current events (Present-attend condition), and then made a series of intertemporal choices about money and food. Compared to attending to the present, imagining the future reduced DD, but this only held for individuals who claimed vivid pre-experiencing of future events. Importantly, a similar attenuation of DD was found in the Past and Present-imagine conditions, suggesting that a shift in perspective from the perceptual present towards mentally constructed experience can downplay the appraisal of immediate rewards in favor of larger-delayed rewards, regardless of the location of the imagined experience in subjective time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- The Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Manuela Sellitto
- Department of Comparative Psychology, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Giulia Tosarelli
- The Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
| | - Giuseppe di Pellegrino
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- The Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy
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18
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Zucchelli MM, Starita F, Bertini C, Giusberti F, Ciaramelli E. Intentionality attribution and emotion: The Knobe Effect in alexithymia. Cognition 2019; 191:103978. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2018] [Revised: 05/12/2019] [Accepted: 05/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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19
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Ciaramelli E, De Luca F, Monk AM, McCormick C, Maguire EA. What "wins" in VMPFC: Scenes, situations, or schema? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 100:208-210. [PMID: 30836123 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2019] [Accepted: 03/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, viale C. Berti-Pichat 5, 40126, Bologna, Italy.
| | - Flavia De Luca
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, viale C. Berti-Pichat 5, 40126, Bologna, Italy.
| | - Anna M Monk
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
| | - Cornelia McCormick
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany.
| | - Eleanor A Maguire
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
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20
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Ciaramelli E, Treves A. A Mind Free to Wander: Neural and Computational Constraints on Spontaneous Thought. Front Psychol 2019; 10:39. [PMID: 30728796 PMCID: PMC6351465 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2018] [Accepted: 01/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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21
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De Luca F, McCormick C, Mullally SL, Intraub H, Maguire EA, Ciaramelli E. Boundary extension is attenuated in patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage. Cortex 2018; 108:1-12. [PMID: 30086391 PMCID: PMC6238077 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2018] [Revised: 06/12/2018] [Accepted: 07/06/2018] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and hippocampus have been implicated in the mental construction of scenes and events. However, little is known about their specific contributions to these cognitive functions. Boundary extension (BE) is a robust indicator of fast, automatic, and implicit scene construction. BE occurs when individuals who are viewing scenes automatically imagine what might be beyond the view, and consequently later misremember having seen a greater expanse of the scene. Patients with hippocampal damage show attenuated BE because of their scene construction impairment. In the current study, we administered BE tasks to patients with vmPFC damage, brain-damaged control patients, and healthy control participants. We also contrasted the performance of these patients to the previously-published data from patients with hippocampal lesions (Mullally, Intraub, & Maguire, 2012). We found that vmPFC-damaged patients showed reduced BE compared to brain-damaged and healthy controls. Indeed, BE attenuation was similar following vmPFC or hippocampal damage. Notably, however, whereas hippocampal damage seems to particularly impair the spatial coherence of scenes, vmPFC damage leads to a difficulty constructing scenes in a broader sense, with the prediction of what should be in a scene, and the monitoring or integration of the scene elements being particularly compromised. We conclude that vmPFC and hippocampus play important and complementary roles in scene construction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavia De Luca
- Dipartimento di Psicologia and Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Cornelia McCormick
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Helene Intraub
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, USA
| | - Eleanor A Maguire
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia and Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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22
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Ciaramelli E, Giannetti C, Orsini R. Does death make us all equal? Materialism and status-seeking under Mortality Salience. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s12232-018-0309-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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23
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Ciaramelli E, Spoglianti S, Bertossi E, Generali N, Telarucci F, Tancredi R, Muratori F, Igliozzi R. Construction of Past and Future Events in Children and Adolescents with ASD: Role of Self-relatedness and Relevance to Decision-Making. J Autism Dev Disord 2018; 48:2995-3009. [DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3577-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
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24
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McCormick C, Ciaramelli E, De Luca F, Maguire EA. Comparing and Contrasting the Cognitive Effects of Hippocampal and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Damage: A Review of Human Lesion Studies. Neuroscience 2018; 374:295-318. [PMID: 28827088 PMCID: PMC6053620 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.07.066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2017] [Revised: 07/24/2017] [Accepted: 07/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are closely connected brain regions whose functions are still debated. In order to offer a fresh perspective on understanding the contributions of these two brain regions to cognition, in this review we considered cognitive tasks that usually elicit deficits in hippocampal-damaged patients (e.g., autobiographical memory retrieval), and examined the performance of vmPFC-lesioned patients on these tasks. We then took cognitive tasks where performance is typically compromised following vmPFC damage (e.g., decision making), and looked at how these are affected by hippocampal lesions. Three salient motifs emerged. First, there are surprising gaps in our knowledge about how hippocampal and vmPFC patients perform on tasks typically associated with the other group. Second, while hippocampal or vmPFC damage seems to adversely affect performance on so-called hippocampal tasks, the performance of hippocampal and vmPFC patients clearly diverges on classic vmPFC tasks. Third, although performance appears analogous on hippocampal tasks, on closer inspection, there are significant disparities between hippocampal and vmPFC patients. Based on these findings, we suggest a tentative hierarchical model to explain the functions of the hippocampus and vmPFC. We propose that the vmPFC initiates the construction of mental scenes by coordinating the curation of relevant elements from neocortical areas, which are then funneled into the hippocampus to build a scene. The vmPFC then engages in iterative re-initiation via feedback loops with neocortex and hippocampus to facilitate the flow and integration of the multiple scenes that comprise the coherent unfolding of an extended mental event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cornelia McCormick
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Flavia De Luca
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Eleanor A Maguire
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
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25
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De Luca F, Benuzzi F, Bertossi E, Braghittoni D, di Pellegrino G, Ciaramelli E. Episodic future thinking and future-based decision-making in a case of retrograde amnesia. Neuropsychologia 2018; 110:92-103. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2017] [Revised: 08/02/2017] [Accepted: 08/04/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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26
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Ciaramelli E, Faggi G, Scarpazza C, Mattioli F, Spaniol J, Ghetti S, Moscovitch M. Subjective recollection independent from multifeatural context retrieval following damage to the posterior parietal cortex. Cortex 2017; 91:114-125. [PMID: 28449939 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.03.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2016] [Revised: 12/19/2016] [Accepted: 03/24/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
This study investigated whether damage to the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) impairs the capacity to retrieve multiple aspects of the encoding context in which items were studied, or whether it impairs the subjective awareness of recollection. Patients with lesions to the PPC (PPC patients) and healthy controls memorized words along with the position in which the words were presented on the screen and the ink color in which they were printed. We studied PPC patients' recognition and source memory performance, as well as subjective recollection as indexed by Remember/Know judgments. PPC patients had preserved recognition memory, and gave a similar number of R responses as did controls. Moreover, PPC patients' source memory performance, including memory for multiple contextual features, was similar to the controls'. However, whereas healthy controls were more likely to select R responses with correct multifeatural source judgments compared to K responses, PPC patients were not. These findings indicate that the PPC plays a role in the subjective experience and metamnemonic evaluation of memory contents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy.
| | - Giorgia Faggi
- Centro studi e ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | | | - Flavia Mattioli
- Riabilitazione Neuropsicologica, Spedali Civili di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Julia Spaniol
- Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Simona Ghetti
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
| | - Morris Moscovitch
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Canada
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27
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Bertossi E, Candela V, De Luca F, Ciaramelli E. Episodic future thinking following vmPFC damage: Impaired event construction, maintenance, or narration? Neuropsychology 2017; 31:337-348. [PMID: 28054822 DOI: 10.1037/neu0000345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Functional neuroimaging and lesion studies show that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is implicated in episodic future thinking (EFT), yet its role remains unclear. In this study, we sought to (a) confirm recent findings of impaired EFT in patients with lesions to the vmPFC (vmPFC patients) using a new task, and (b) investigate the influence of nonepisodic mechanisms, namely, narrative construction and working memory maintenance, on vmPFC patients' EFT performance. METHOD vmPFC patients and healthy participants imagined future events using pictures as cues, described pictures, or described pictures while maintaining them in working memory after an observation phase. RESULTS Compared with the controls, vmPFC patients produced less specific reports across all conditions, as indicated by fewer internal (episodic) but a similar number of external (semantic) details. However, controlling for description and working memory performance did not eliminate group differences in EFT. Moreover, vmPFC damage reduced the proportion of internal-to-total details for EFT only. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that EFT problems in vmPFC patients are not merely the reflection of problems in maintaining in working memory and narrating events, but, more likely, of an impairment upstream, in creating novel events. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Vanessa Candela
- Centro di studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Universitá di Bologna
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28
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Bertossi E, Tesini C, Cappelli A, Ciaramelli E. Ventromedial prefrontal damage causes a pervasive impairment of episodic memory and future thinking. Neuropsychologia 2016; 90:12-24. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2015] [Revised: 01/25/2016] [Accepted: 01/27/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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29
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Anelli F, Ciaramelli E, Arzy S, Frassinetti F. Prisms to travel in time: Investigation of time-space association through prismatic adaptation effect on mental time travel. Cognition 2016; 156:1-5. [PMID: 27467891 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2016] [Revised: 07/08/2016] [Accepted: 07/14/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that humans process time and space in similar veins. Humans represent time along a spatial continuum, and perception of temporal durations can be altered through manipulations of spatial attention by prismatic adaptation (PA). Here, we investigated whether PA-induced manipulations of spatial attention can also influence more conceptual aspects of time, such as humans' ability to travel mentally back and forward in time (mental time travel, MTT). Before and after leftward- and rightward-PA, participants projected themselves in the past, present or future time (i.e., self-projection), and, for each condition, determined whether a series of events were located in the past or the future with respect to that specific self-location in time (i.e., self-reference). The results demonstrated that leftward and rightward shifts of spatial attention facilitated recognition of past and future events, respectively. These findings suggest that spatial attention affects the temporal processing of the human self.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filomena Anelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy; Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri Hospital IRCCS, 46042 Castel Goffredo, Italy.
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy; Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, 47023 Cesena, Italy
| | - Shahar Arzy
- Neuropsychiatry Lab, Faculty of Medicine, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School, 91200 Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Neurology, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, 91200 Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Francesca Frassinetti
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy; Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri Hospital IRCCS, 46042 Castel Goffredo, Italy
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30
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Bertossi E, Ciaramelli E. Ventromedial prefrontal damage reduces mind-wandering and biases its temporal focus. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:1783-1791. [PMID: 27445210 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 07/11/2016] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Mind-wandering, an ubiquitous expression of humans' mental life, reflects a drift of attention away from the current task towards self-generated thoughts, and has been associated with activity in the brain default network. To date, however, little is understood about the contribution of individual nodes of this network to mind-wandering. Here, we investigated whether the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is critically involved in mind-wandering, by studying the propensity to mind-wander in patients with lesion to the vmPFC (vmPFC patients), control patients with lesions not involving the vmPFC, and healthy individuals. Participants performed three tasks varying in cognitive demands while their thoughts were periodically sampled, and a self-report scale of daydreaming in daily life. vmPFC patients exhibited reduced mind-wandering rates across tasks, and claimed less frequent daydreaming, than both healthy and brain-damaged controls. vmPFC damage reduced off-task thoughts related to the future, while it promoted those about the present. These results indicate that vmPFC critically supports mind-wandering, possibly by helping to construct future-related scenarios and thoughts that have the potential to draw attention inward, away from the ongoing tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Bertossi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia.,Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia .,Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Italy
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31
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Sellitto M, Ciaramelli E, Mattioli F, di Pellegrino G. Reduced Sensitivity to Sooner Reward During Intertemporal Decision-Making Following Insula Damage in Humans. Front Behav Neurosci 2016; 9:367. [PMID: 26793084 PMCID: PMC4709635 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2015] [Accepted: 12/21/2015] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
During intertemporal choice, humans tend to prefer small-sooner rewards over larger-delayed rewards, reflecting temporal discounting (TD) of delayed outcomes. Functional neuroimaging (fMRI) evidence has implicated the insular cortex in time-sensitive decisions, yet it is not clear whether activity in this brain region is crucial for, or merely associated with, TD behavior. Here, patients with damage to the insula (Insular patients), control patients with lesions outside the insula, and healthy individuals chose between smaller-sooner and larger-later monetary rewards. Insular patients were less sensitive to sooner rewards than were the control groups, exhibiting reduced TD. A Voxel-based Lesion-Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analysis confirmed a statistically significant association between insular damage and reduced TD. These results indicate that the insular cortex is crucial for intertemporal choice. We suggest that he insula may be necessary to anticipate the bodily/emotional effects of receiving rewards at different delays, influencing the computation of their incentive value. Devoid of such input, insular patients' choices would be governed by a heuristic of quantity, allowing patients to wait for larger options.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuela Sellitto
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di BolognaBologna, Italy
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Polo Scientifico-Didattico di CesenaCesena, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di BolognaBologna, Italy
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Polo Scientifico-Didattico di CesenaCesena, Italy
| | - Flavia Mattioli
- Riabilitazione Neuropsicologica, Spedali Civili di BresciaBrescia, Italy
| | - Giuseppe di Pellegrino
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di BolognaBologna, Italy
- Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Polo Scientifico-Didattico di CesenaCesena, Italy
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Bertossi E, Aleo F, Braghittoni D, Ciaramelli E. Stuck in the here and now: Construction of fictitious and future experiences following ventromedial prefrontal damage. Neuropsychologia 2015; 81:107-116. [PMID: 26707714 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2015] [Revised: 12/12/2015] [Accepted: 12/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
There is increasing interest in uncovering the cognitive and neural bases of episodic future thinking (EFT), the ability to imagine events relevant to one's own future. Recent functional neuroimaging evidence shows that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is engaged during EFT. However, vmPFC is also activated during imagination of fictitious, atemporal experiences. Therefore, its role in EFT is currently unclear. To test (1) whether vmPFC is critical for EFT, and (2) whether it supports EFT specifically, or, rather, construction of any complex experience, patients with focal lesions to vmPFC (vmPFC patients), control patients with lesions not involving vmPFC, and healthy controls were asked to imagine personal future experiences and fictitious experiences. Compared to the control groups, vmPFC patients were impaired at imagining both future and fictitious experiences, indicating a general deficit in constructing novel experiences. Unlike the control groups, however, vmPFC patients had more difficulties in imagining future compared to fictitious experiences. Exploratory correlation analyses showed that general construction deficits correlated with lesion volume in BA 11, whereas specific EFT deficits correlated with lesion volume in BA 32 and BA 10. Together, these findings indicate that vmPFC is crucial for EFT. We propose, however, that different vmPFC subregions may support different component processes of EFT: the most ventral part, BA 11, may underlie core constructive processes needed to imagine any complex experience (e.g., scene construction), whereas BA 10 and BA 32 may mediate simulation of those specific experiences that likely await us in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Bertossi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, viale Berti-Pichat 5, 40126 Bologna, Italy; Centro di studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, viale Europa 980, 47023 Cesena, Italy
| | - Fabio Aleo
- Centro di studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, viale Europa 980, 47023 Cesena, Italy
| | - Davide Braghittoni
- Centro di studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, viale Europa 980, 47023 Cesena, Italy
| | - Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, viale Berti-Pichat 5, 40126 Bologna, Italy; Centro di studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, viale Europa 980, 47023 Cesena, Italy.
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Ciaramelli E, Neri F, Marini L, Braghittoni D. Improving memory following prefrontal cortex damage with the PQRST method. Front Behav Neurosci 2015; 9:211. [PMID: 26321932 PMCID: PMC4532931 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2015] [Accepted: 07/28/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
We tested (1) whether the PQRST method, involving Preview (P), Question (Q), Read (R), State (S), and Test (T) phases, is effective in enhancing long-term memory in patients with mild memory problems due to prefrontal cortex lesions, and (2) whether patients also benefit from a more self-initiated version of the PQRST. Seven patients with prefrontal lesions encoded new texts under three different conditions: the Standard condition, requiring to read texts repeatedly, the PQRST-Other condition, in which the experimenter formulated questions about the text (Q phase), and the PQRST-Self condition, in which patients formulated the relevant questions on their own. Compared to the Standard condition, both the PQRST-Other and the PQRST-Self condition resulted in higher immediate and delayed recall rates, as well as a higher ability to answer questions about the texts. Importantly, the two PQRST conditions did not differ in efficacy. These results confirm that the PQRST method is effective in improving learning of new material in brain-injured populations with mild memory problems. Moreover, they indicate that the PQRST proves effective even under conditions with higher demands on patients’ autonomy and self-initiation, which encourages its application to real-life situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna Bologna, Italy ; Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena Italy
| | - Francesco Neri
- Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena Italy
| | - Luca Marini
- Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena Italy
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Abstract
Functional neuroimaging studies have noted that brain regions supporting theory of mind (ToM) overlap remarkably with those underlying episodic memory, suggesting a link between the two processes. The present study shows that memory for others’ past experiences modulates significantly our appraisal of, and reaction to, what is happening to them currently. Participants read the life story of two characters; one had experienced a long series of love-related failures, the other a long series of work-related failures. In a later faux pas recognition task, participants reported more empathy for the character unlucky in love in love-related faux pas scenarios, and for the character unlucky at work in work-related faux pas scenarios. The memory-based modulation of empathy correlated with the number of details remembered from the characters’ life story. These results suggest that individuals use memory for other people’s past experiences to simulate how they feel in similar situations they are currently facing. The integration of ToM and memory processes allows adjusting mental state inferences to fit unique social targets, constructing an individualized ToM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia and Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna Bologna, Italy
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Cabeza R, Ciaramelli E, Moscovitch M. Response to Nelson et al.: ventral parietal subdivisions are not incompatible with an overarching function. Trends Cogn Sci 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Ciaramelli E, Sperotto RG, Mattioli F, di Pellegrino G. Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reduces interpersonal disgust. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2012; 8:171-80. [PMID: 22842816 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nss087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Disgust for contaminating objects (core disgust), immoral behaviors (moral disgust) and unsavory others (interpersonal disgust), have been assumed to be closely related. It is not clear, however, whether different forms of disgust are mediated by overlapping or specific neural substrates. We report that 10 patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) avoided behaviors that normally elicit interpersonal disgust (e.g. using the scarf of a busker) less frequently than healthy and brain-damaged controls, whereas they avoided core and moral disgust elicitors at normal rates. These results indicate that different forms of disgust are dissociated neurally. We propose that the vmPFC is causally (and selectively) involved in mediating interpersonal disgust, shaping patterns of social avoidance and approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy
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Cabeza R, Ciaramelli E, Moscovitch M. Cognitive contributions of the ventral parietal cortex: an integrative theoretical account. Trends Cogn Sci 2012; 16:338-52. [PMID: 22609315 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 300] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2011] [Revised: 04/25/2012] [Accepted: 04/25/2012] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Although ventral parietal cortex (VPC) activations can be found in a variety of cognitive domains, these activations have been typically attributed to cognitive operations specific to each domain. In this article, we propose a hypothesis that can account for VPC activations across all the cognitive domains reviewed. We first review VPC activations in the domains of perceptual and motor reorienting, episodic memory retrieval, language and number processing, theory of mind, and episodic memory encoding. Then, we consider the localization of VPC activations across domains and conclude that they are largely overlapping with some differences around the edges. Finally, we assess how well four different hypotheses of VPC function can explain findings in various domains and conclude that a bottom-up attention hypothesis provides the most complete and parsimonious account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Cabeza
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham 27516, USA.
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Abstract
People are frequently faced with intertemporal choices, i.e., choices differing in the timing of their consequences, preferring smaller rewards available immediately over larger rewards delivered after a delay. The inability to forgo sooner gratification to favor delayed reward (e.g., impulsivity) has been related to several pathological conditions characterized by poor self-control, including drug addiction and obesity. Comparative and functional human studies have implicated a network of brain areas involved in intertemporal choice, including the medial portion of the orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). Moreover, damage to this cortical area increases preference for immediate gratification in intertemporal decisions. Here, we review recent neuroscientific studies concerning intertemporal choice, suggesting that the mOFC contributes to preference for delayed rewards, either by computing the value of future outcomes (i.e., valuation), or by enabling people to imagine and represent future rewards and their consequences (e.g., prospection).
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuela Sellitto
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
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Ghetti S, Mirandola C, Angelini L, Cornoldi C, Ciaramelli E. Development of Subjective Recollection: Understanding of and Introspection on Memory States. Child Dev 2011; 82:1954-69. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01645.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Abstract
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) is crucial for moral behavior, yet the mechanism through which the VMPFC promotes moral behavior remains unclear. In this article, we emphasize that moral choice is often intertemporal, requiring foregoing short-term gains in favor of future outcomes of larger value. We propose that the VMPFC may be necessary for mental time travel (MTT), a cognitive process enabling vivid preexperiencing of future outcomes. By providing anticipated outcomes that inform decisions, MTT may promote farsighted, moral behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia e Centro di Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Italy,
| | - Giuseppe di Pellegrino
- Dipartimento di Psicologia e Centro di Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Università di Bologna, Italy
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Cabeza R, Mazuz YS, Stokes J, Kragel JE, Woldorff MG, Ciaramelli E, Olson IR, Moscovitch M. Overlapping parietal activity in memory and perception: evidence for the attention to memory model. J Cogn Neurosci 2011; 23:3209-17. [PMID: 21568633 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The specific role of different parietal regions to episodic retrieval is a topic of intense debate. According to the Attention to Memory (AtoM) model, dorsal parietal cortex (DPC) mediates top-down attention processes guided by retrieval goals, whereas ventral parietal cortex (VPC) mediates bottom-up attention processes captured by the retrieval output or the retrieval cue. This model also hypothesizes that the attentional functions of DPC and VPC are similar for memory and perception. To investigate this last hypothesis, we scanned participants with event-related fMRI whereas they performed memory and perception tasks, each comprising an orienting phase (top-down attention) and a detection phase (bottom-up attention). The study yielded two main findings. First, consistent with the AtoM model, orienting-related activity for memory and perception overlapped in DPC, whereas detection-related activity for memory and perception overlapped in VPC. The DPC overlap was greater in the left intraparietal sulcus, and the VPC overlap in the left TPJ. Around overlapping areas, there were differences in the spatial distribution of memory and perception activations, which were consistent with trends reported in the literature. Second, both DPC and VPC showed stronger connectivity with medial-temporal lobe during the memory task and with visual cortex during the perception task. These findings suggest that, during memory tasks, some parietal regions mediate similar attentional control processes to those involved in perception tasks (orienting in DPC vs. detection in VPC), although on different types of information (mnemonic vs. sensory).
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Ciaramelli E, Rosenbaum RS, Solcz S, Levine B, Moscovitch M. Mental space travel: Damage to posterior parietal cortex prevents egocentric navigation and reexperiencing of remote spatial memories. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010; 36:619-34. [DOI: 10.1037/a0019181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Serino A, Ciaramelli E, Santantonio AD, Malagù S, Servadei F, Làdavas E. A pilot study for rehabilitation of central executive deficits after traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj 2009; 21:11-9. [PMID: 17364515 DOI: 10.1080/02699050601151811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE An impairment of the central executive system (CES) of working memory (WM) is a common consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may also explain deficits in divided attention, long-term memory and executive functions. Here we investigated the efficacy of a rehabilitative program (working memory training: WMT) targeting the CES in improving WM and other cognitive functions dependent on this system. METHODS AND PROCEDURES Nine TBI patients with severe WM deficits underwent the WMT (experimental training). The WMT was preceded by a general stimulation training (GST; control training). Patients' cognitive performance was evaluated at the admission, after the GST and at the end of the WMT. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Whereas the GST had no effect on patients' performance, after the WMT patients improved in all the cognitive functions dependent on the CES, but not in those functions not thought to tap this system. Importantly, a beneficial WMT effect was found on patients' everyday life functioning. CONCLUSIONS The results support the efficacy of the WMT in recovering CES impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Serino
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna
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Ciaramelli E, Ghetti S, Borsotti M. Divided attention during retrieval suppresses false recognition in confabulation. Cortex 2009; 45:141-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2007.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2007] [Revised: 08/14/2007] [Accepted: 10/02/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Ciaramelli E, Spaniol J. Ventromedial prefrontal damage and memory for context: Perceptual versus semantic features. Neuropsychology 2009; 23:649-57. [DOI: 10.1037/a0015937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
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Abstract
The contribution of the parietal cortex to episodic memory is a fascinating scientific puzzle. On the one hand, parietal lesions do not normally yield severe episodic-memory deficits; on the other hand, parietal activations are seen frequently in functional-neuroimaging studies of episodic memory. A review of these two categories of evidence suggests that the answer to the puzzle requires us to distinguish between the contributions of dorsal and ventral parietal regions and between the influence of top-down and bottom-up attention on memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Cabeza
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, B203 LSRC building, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
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Ciaramelli E. The role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in navigation: A case of impaired wayfinding and rehabilitation. Neuropsychologia 2008; 46:2099-105. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.11.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2007] [Revised: 11/25/2007] [Accepted: 11/28/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Davidson PSR, Anaki D, Ciaramelli E, Cohn M, Kim ASN, Murphy KJ, Troyer AK, Moscovitch M, Levine B. Does lateral parietal cortex support episodic memory? Evidence from focal lesion patients. Neuropsychologia 2008; 46:1743-55. [PMID: 18313699 PMCID: PMC2806230 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 163] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2007] [Revised: 01/05/2008] [Accepted: 01/08/2008] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Although neuroimaging and human lesion studies agree that the medial parietal region plays a critical role in episodic memory, many neuroimaging studies have also implicated lateral parietal cortex, leading some researchers to suggest that the lateral region plays a heretofore underappreciated role in episodic memory. Because there are very few extant lesion data on this matter, we examined memory in six cases of focal lateral parietal damage, using both clinical and experimental measures, in which we distinguished between recollection and familiarity. The patients did not have amnesia, but they did show evidence of disrupted recollection on an anterograde memory task. Although the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated, lateral parietal damage appears to impair some aspects of episodic memory.
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Lauro-Grotto R, Ciaramelli E, Piccini C, Treves A. Differential impact of brain damage on the access mode to memory representations: an information theoretic approach. Eur J Neurosci 2007; 26:2702-12. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05881.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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Ciaramelli E, Muccioli M, Làdavas E, di Pellegrino G. Selective deficit in personal moral judgment following damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2007; 2:84-92. [PMID: 18985127 PMCID: PMC2555449 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsm001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 221] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2007] [Accepted: 02/05/2007] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent fMRI evidence has detected increased medial prefrontal activation during contemplation of personal moral dilemmas compared to impersonal ones, which suggests that this cortical region plays a role in personal moral judgment. However, functional imaging results cannot definitively establish that a brain area is necessary for a particular cognitive process. This requires evidence from lesion techniques, such as studies of human patients with focal brain damage. Here, we tested 7 patients with lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and 12 healthy individuals in personal moral dilemmas, impersonal moral dilemmas and non-moral dilemmas. Compared to normal controls, patients were more willing to judge personal moral violations as acceptable behaviors in personal moral dilemmas, and they did so more quickly. In contrast, their performance in impersonal and non-moral dilemmas was comparable to that of controls. These results indicate that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary to oppose personal moral violations, possibly by mediating anticipatory, self-focused, emotional reactions that may exert strong influence on moral choice and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Ciaramelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Centro Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Michela Muccioli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Centro Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Elisabetta Làdavas
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Centro Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
| | - Giuseppe di Pellegrino
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Centro Studi e Ricerche di Neuroscienze Cognitive, Cesena, Italy
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